"Newbie gains" how long does this last?

successgal1

GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »

OP, If you want a full body structured program that you can progress with at home, try buying Strong Curves. You can use resistance bands to mimic some of the cable exercises in the regular program, and can start with the body weight program if you'd like.

Thanks I just looked that up. Many of those moves are those I already do, that I've picked up from my various workout videos as having good effect. Some I can't yet do again. Some I will never do, or may never be able to do, due to that bursitis, like anything resembling a plank, and bulging disc.

successgal1

nutmegoreo wrote: »

When I started lifting, the water retention lasted around a month (I don't remember exactly how long, it's been a while). But then one day, there was a big whoosh and pile dropped off over night, and stayed off. I know it's frustrating when the scale doesn't move, but give it time. There's the logical side of your brain and the illogical side. Ask yourself WWSD, what would Spock do? Sorry, I watched a show on Spock last night. Progress at your own pace to minimize risk of injury. Listen to your body. My worst set backs caused by injury occurred when I didn't listen.

Thanks! I think I was at a month of working out and waiting last time before I finally gave up. I got down to 173, working with those "all over body" workouts, was thinner, about as thin as I am now, but heavier and felt bloated. Maybe i can stick it out this time. Vegas is 10 weeks away.

serapel

I love your attitude! Only YOU know what's best for you.

I don't squat unless I'm holding onto something. Like you. I don't want injury. We are too old to injure ourselves.

I love the power I feel when I lift something over 200 lbs with my butt cheeks haha

successgal1

Well, jumped from 9 miles on the bike to 12 miles yesterday, courtesy of me forgetting about the tomatoes on the counter and they went bad, and I needed tomatoes for the 7 layer dip for the party we're off to today. So Super Target is 6 miles taking the long way on our bikes. Could have cut it short to get home but we did the full round trip for the full 12 miles in 1 hour 20 minutes. Thank goodness no headwind either way or we'd have cut it short (by about 3 miles). I am rewarded today with lower back pain, like a vertabrae is slipping around on a disc (which happened while I was still lying in bad, I had the nerve to relax for a minute), on the other side from where I normally have such pain, AND my scale is 2 pounds heavier.

Yeah yeah I know.

successgal1

To those keeping track on my newbie gains besides me.... It's been 10 days since I started working out in addition to a calorie deficit. It feels FAR longer. Switching cycling with upper body every other day.

Did another 12 miles on the bike yesterday, in addition to upper body which I missed on Sunday. The scale has gone from a low of 165.8 to 168.4 and doesn't seem interested in budging from there.

I am now able to work my left shoulder with a 5 lb weight and less pain. I'm noticing increased muscle in my arms (yay muscle memory?), and naturally more defined muscles in my legs, thighs etc. For upper budy I do 2 sets of 10 of the highest weight whichever muscle group can handle it with proper form, using freeweights. By the time I've done every other exercise I can think of and end with biceps, the bicep reaches fatigue by the 7th rep of set two. (stop laughing). I faked some deadlifts with my 8lb freeweights, if I hadn't already done overhead press I could have combined the two. Have to move slow and careful so's I don't knock my back out of place.

I THINK my waist is a tiny bit smaller, whether because of fat loss or just because my abs/core are getting a workout its hard to say. The stubborn fat which is usually hard is starting to feel soft. I was able to more easily move the aforementioned almost full 5 gallon bucket of water yesterday, which google tells me is about 37 lbs given that it wasn't completely full but adding the weight of the bucket.

Hoping for a whoosh, but I've never been the whooshy type, lol.

Trina2040

Hi, just wanted to add a point about the scale. I understand your concern about scale weight but have you tried following your weight trend over time? I use Trendweight.com. I weigh in every morning then log and watch the trend over time (months) before I start to freak out about my poundage. While I fluctuate up and down day to day, which is normal, I'm able to see the continuous downward trend over time. Two weeks is not enough time to gather all the data points needed to see if your diet and exercise is on point. You're freaking out for no reason.

I'm 67 years old and have lost 48-50 lbs, 5'2.5" tall. It took me 15 months to lose the weight and I'm currently in maintenance for well over a year now. I started at 179 and I'm around 129 - 131 lbs (fluctuations). I still weigh in every day, log, and exercise (cardio & weights) 4 days a week. I lift up to 30 lbs doing Body Pump classes and have to watch my knees.

How awesome that you cycle -- there's no way I could ever do that and not blow out a knee! Keep the faith.

successgal1

:-) I'm not "freaking out". But I find it hard to stay motivated for long periods of time with no results. And yes diet is on point as stated in my OP. Time is on fact, the problem. There currently is no downward trend. Without it then all the work and all the diet restrictions seem futile.

Been there before, many times. Am posting here to document so maybe at least the documentation can keep me from getting disgusted with the whole process. And if/when i FINALLY see weight go down again, maybe it will help other exercise newbies.

I was losing fine without exercise.

nutmegoreo

successgal1 wrote: »

To those keeping track on my newbie gains besides me.... It's been 10 days since I started working out in addition to a calorie deficit. It feels FAR longer. Switching cycling with upper body every other day.

Did another 12 miles on the bike yesterday, in addition to upper body which I missed on Sunday. The scale has gone from a low of 165.8 to 168.4 and doesn't seem interested in budging from there.

I am now able to work my left shoulder with a 5 lb weight and less pain. I'm noticing increased muscle in my arms (yay muscle memory?), and naturally more defined muscles in my legs, thighs etc. For upper budy I do 2 sets of 10 of the highest weight whichever muscle group can handle it with proper form, using freeweights. By the time I've done every other exercise I can think of and end with biceps, the bicep reaches fatigue by the 7th rep of set two. (stop laughing). I faked some deadlifts with my 8lb freeweights, if I hadn't already done overhead press I could have combined the two. Have to move slow and careful so's I don't knock my back out of place.

I THINK my waist is a tiny bit smaller, whether because of fat loss or just because my abs/core are getting a workout its hard to say. The stubborn fat which is usually hard is starting to feel soft. I was able to more easily move the aforementioned almost full 5 gallon bucket of water yesterday, which google tells me is about 37 lbs given that it wasn't completely full but adding the weight of the bucket.

Hoping for a whoosh, but I've never been the whooshy type, lol.

I never was one to have stalls and whoosh either, until weightlifting was added. Stay patient. I know that's hard.

successgal1

Thanks!

rileysowner

Glad you are getting the hang of things. Just to be clear this weight gain is no newbie gains, those are the muscle gains that new lifters can have even in a deficit, but they are slow, months in a better measure than weeks. This is water weight cause by the micro damage to the muscle caused by lifting weights and needed to help repair them stronger, although not necessarily bigger.

canadianlbs

successgal1 wrote: »

To those keeping track on my newbie gains besides me.... It's been 10 days since I started working out

successgal1 wrote: »

:-) I'm not "freaking out". But I find it hard to stay motivated for long periods of time with no results.

okay, so 10 days is not a 'long period of time'. i try to understand wanting to see 'results' so as to know whether or not you're on a track that's going to end up helpful for you, but it's hard for me to take ten days seriously.

road-raging your own body for not moving as fast as you want it to is pointless. pick a journey that you enjoy if you need motivation, because lifting is full of ups and downs. "are we there yet" and "how much longer" just turns it into a grind.

successgal1

canadianlbs wrote: »

successgal1 wrote: »

To those keeping track on my newbie gains besides me.... It's been 10 days since I started working out

successgal1 wrote: »

:-) I'm not "freaking out". But I find it hard to stay motivated for long periods of time with no results.

okay, so 10 days is not a 'long period of time'. i try to understand wanting to see 'results' so as to know whether or not you're on a track that's going to end up helpful for you, but it's hard for me to take ten days seriously.

road-raging your own body for not moving as fast as you want it to is pointless. pick a journey that you enjoy if you need motivation, because lifting is full of ups and downs. "are we there yet" and "how much longer" just turns it into a grind.

Well, yeah. It is a grind. My preferred state is sedentary. It's a battle to be active.

Especially when I've just awakened severely stiff and sore, with my chronic hip pain in full swing, knowing its bike day again. Its taken me 45 minutes of magnesium, ibuprofen and stretching just to make it to this app.

Frankly if you're not taking my post or my 10 days seriously I certainly don't need another reason to feel down about it. Calling my issues "pointless" is hardly helpful.

I hope you're not a trainer.

canadianlbs

successgal1 wrote: »

Well, yeah. It is a grind. My preferred state is sedentary. It's a battle to be active.

Especially when I've just awakened severely stiff and sore, with my chronic hip pain in full swing, knowing its bike day again. Its taken me 45 minutes of magnesium, ibuprofen and stretching just to make it to this app.

Frankly if you're not taking my post or my 10 days seriously I certainly don't need another reason to feel down about it. Calling my issues "pointless" is hardly helpful.

I hope you're not a trainer.

i'm not a trainer. i'm not a psychic either, and maybe not a careful-enough reader. so the fact you weren't just demanding instant beach body after ten days passed me by.

here's the deal, as i've experienced it with my own chronic stuff that has to be dealt with each day. 'motivation' works best when you pick what your battle is going to be according to what's going on every day. for me, setting ambitious goals is a path to heartbreak and rage-quits. i'd like to, but as my son used to say, that's how it doesn't work in my case.

sometimes it's just reaching 'functional'. or getting into the gym and experimenting for half an hour before i even know if i'm going to feel safe enough to do anything real on that day. sometimes it's just the mental struggle to make myself chill because today isn't the day where it's going to work. it doesn't work for me to compare myself to other people or to 'normal' yardsticks, so i don't do it. i compare myself more to 'right now' and however that feels. in my experience, as soon as you have a chronic condition of any kind, people hesitate to give you concrete answers anyway. they have no way of knowing what your body's situation is, so the more cautious ones are not willing to make projections for you. and the non-cautious ones just set you up for feeling like *kitten* by setting milestones that might not be within that-easy reach.

successgal1

All I'm doing at this point is trying to stay motivated by documenting in public. I realize I have water weight gains from working out and this has gone on for over a month before and I wanted to know if anyone else hangs onto what I'm still going to call "newbie gains" for over a month. Not sure why they aren't "newbie gains" since my upper body muscles are bigger, isn't tearing the fibers and healing them building a muscle? Whatever, that part is unimportant to me.

But at some point, something has got to give in the actual scale department. If I'm eating less then I burn at some point the number on the scale has to outrun the water weight. Doesn't it? I'm not going to be 166 and well muscled forever am I? Last time I was well muscled I was 143 and age 35. I just wanted to know, in others experience, when that was for them.

Since I'm getting varying answers I'm documenting my progress. I AM a technical person, I LIKE detail. Detail and numbers give me a progress report. It helps me keep my calories in check and motivated to exercise. Is that bad? I can't just "trust and have faith". Its not me. I did do measurements. I do believe my waist has dropped an inch. I'll take it as fat gone, but, still I'm higher on the scale then my low of 11 days ago. It's irritating. I'm not trying to stop it from being irritating as irritation is responsible for any changes for the better I've done in my life.

It doesn't stop the pain though. Or the unfairness of me having to stick to 1200 net, MAYBE 1300 to recomp and still lose fat while others get so much. Can't even drown my sorrows in a few beers as muscle relaxant because it would blow my deficit and is hardly helpful to recovery.

canadianlbs

edit: i'll also point out i wasn't intentionally trying to discourage you. just that most of your markers seem to be about the visual aspect. i was saying that by objective standards, expecting to see visual results within 10 days seems pretty ambitious to me.

even without health issues and no particular barriers to attacking every workout like a demon, the reputable-looking information i have is that most women will gain about a pound of muscle a month when they start out. that's 1/3 of a pound over ten days, which is less than a cup.

i've definitely experienced functional improvement in that time frame when i focused on rehab or activation of a specific muscle group. for instance, i can poke my bum and tell that my glutes feel physically thicker than they used to. i've gotten stronger and/or found some of my lifts were much easier at the same weight. or i discover empirically that specific movements are a lot easier and literally feel different to do with the targeted group working more actively. but those are sensory things, and i try not to concentrate on longer-term questions like how it looks or how much i weigh.

however, for reference i'm doing compound lifting with squats/deadlift/bench/rows/overhead press. so my parameters are different from yours as well.

successgal1

canadianlbs wrote: »

even without health issues and no particular barriers to attacking every workout like a demon, the reputable-looking information i have is that most women will gain about a pound of muscle a month when they start out. that's 1/3 of a pound over ten days, which is less than a cup.

Now see, that was a helpful comment. It never actually occurred to me to see if I could google the actual possible weight in muscle I COULD be gaining, since so many bros here say "oh they're not REAL gains" and I'm apparently imagining it.

So, lets say I put on a pound of muscle and a pound of water weight, that would account for the 2 extra pounds on the scale (I'm sure I'm oversimplifying that). It's probably more water then muscle.

Happy to report I apparently had a "whoosh". Actually, I didn't want to jinx it but for the past few days my weight has been dropping gradually from the increased "new workout" weight of 168.4. Today I finally got back to close to where I started at 166.

I'm hopeful now that I will get back to seeing fat loss on the scale, since my muscle gains will/should level out if I don't increase weight too much on my arms, once 2 sets of 10 all around becomes easier I can add another set.

My cycling resistance will only change with wind, and I can only increase my pace a little. Increased it last night actually since I needed to get back to the house before it was fully dark, pretty much my fastest pace I can do without losing contact with the pedals. 12 miles in an hour and 10 instead of an hour and 20. I can however alter my path to some dirt roads or sidewalk where I can hop onto grass here and there. We'll see.

I also added some core that targets my lower abs in the form of 2 exercises the physical therapist showed me. Exercises I used to be able to do without assistance during my pilates dvd, but in this case I use an exercise ball for support until I'm stronger.

9 weeks to Vegas.

canadianlbs

successgal1 wrote: »

Now see, that was a helpful comment. It never actually occurred to me to see if I could google the actual possible weight in muscle I COULD be gaining, since so many bros here say "oh they're not REAL gains" and I'm apparently imagining it.

yeah, it takes a while to figure out how to find the real information, and recognize which info you feel confident about accepting.

I'm hopeful now that I will get back to seeing fat loss on the scale, since my muscle gains will/should level out if I don't increase weight too much on my arms, once 2 sets of 10 all around becomes easier I can add another set.

strength training is just about the best thing on earth. but again, for reference: check out a pound of steak in the grocery store sometime. it's animal tissue, but it still gives you a general idea of what a pound of muscle actually looks like in terms of volume.

there's a 'motivation and support' subforum here where you might be able to find like-minded people to co-motivate with.

successgal1

165.6 this morning! That's .20 lower then my last low over 2 weeks ago! Whoo hooo! Note I did not get my upper body workout yesterday, due to being busy house cleaning and preparing for 2 nights away. My neighbor watches the house and multiple pets. So my arms had an extra day to recover.

And now I will to go over in calories for the next couple of days due to travel and the holidays. How much? Who knows. Have to go visit mom and dad across the state, my brother and sister are there for 2 nights. So one night in a hotel there, then zip 3 hours back home, repack and head south to Sunrise. Billy Joel in concert New Years Eve!

Bucket list concert!

Bringing positive thinking and workout clothes, as if I will have time and energy. The hotel tonight does have a fitness center, looks like it has freeweights and a recumbant stationary bike. MAYBE I'll be able to get a half hour on it, between tonight and crawling out of bed early the next morning. We'll see.

57 degrees, dropped 20 overnight. Winter has come (for a few days) to south Florida.

Happy New Year everyone!

successgal1

Popping in for an update.

Life (and death) has been in the way of proper tracking and my set schedule of things. My father passed away (not unexpectedly, alzheimers and dementia), and we had to put our second oldest dog to rest (cancer). I confess I did some emotional eating from McDonalds during the 2.5 hour drive to my mothers 2 days ago, and really didn't bother tracking food, priorities you know.

On another note my coaster brake on my bike is making pinging noises and it occurs to me its way past time for it to be serviced. It never has been and I've had it about 4 years. Going to try to bring it to the bike shop tomorrow.

Not that I've been completely inactive. I am a Realtor and obtained a listing of a 10 acre equestrian property/farm, where the sellers are both suffering back and neck issues and cannot do proper cleanup and "curb appeal" type stuff, lack of funds and friends too. So my SO and I spent a day there on Sunday, mainly weeding and de-junking the exterior of one of the barns (thankfully he's a strong man). I ate all my calories believe me. My fingers are still swollen from hand pruning and pulling weeds. Going WAY above and beyond on this one. And that was just the tip of the iceberg. Doing more today, the sellers are of course flabbergasted we're helping so much, besides the fact I want the place to sell and its prime time for an equestrian property here in Florida, its a perfect all over body workout. And I prefer regular physical labor over formal, boring workouts. Feeling a bit like American Pickers too.

My weight had dropped to 165 from my previous post, but mostly stayed over 166/167 with all my swollen muscles and sodium replenishment (yes we'll call it that).

Today, after a good night sleep and a solid 48 hours of no physical labor I'm happy to report 164.6! I almost fell of the scale. Before I went to bed it was over 169.

11 days between 165.6 and 164.6.

successgal1

Its been almost a month since my last update/journal entry, otherwise known as pretty much talking to myself, lol.

Today I weighed in at 159.8, yay! But a month to lose 5lbs. Not really the rate I would like to see the scale move though. BUT, I've been exercising more and differently and have MUCH bigger muscles. Have I GAINED newbie muscle or "just strengthened" what I didn't have before?

I added in my old jane fonda step aerobics, nice leg workout and cardio at the same time. I'm up to 5,8 and 10 lb weights, going to need a 12 soon for biceps. Those apparently don't exist in an easy to go pick up at the store manner, so I'll be adding 2 lb wrist weights to each arm and using the 10. The left shoulder still has persistent bursitis pain on side arm lifts, even without a weight.

Day before yesterday I finally felt fit enough to do that Firm with Fanny Lifter Cardio Sculpt DVD. And yesterday I felt swollen. Today registered a weekly loss of 1 lb, and some muscles are still stiff. Will do the workout again tonight. Able to do the upper body weights well with good form, and used the full 14" step for the "fanny lifting" portions, without weights though. Being careful and really focusing so I don't hurt anything. Realized that my softer flexible Asics running shoes were not supportive enough with side to side lunging movements and picked up a firmer soled pair of under armour brand sneakers on clearance yesterday. Don't need to sprain an ankle using improper footwear!

I've now reached a 28 lb loss since I started, fell off the wagon, and restarted my weight loss "journey". Goal to lose 2-3 more lbs before Vegas (in 20 days). Then there's Vegas. I'm planning to not care a whit about food or alcohol intake, but will get in some good walks along the strip and will use the fitness center at the hotel as wanted/needed. My 3rd trip to Vegas so I know how to pace myself! A total of 9 days.

rileysowner

A little over a pound a week is not bad progress. Unless a person is obese, I don't remember where you are in that if you mentioned it at all, 1 pound a week or even less would be a good rate of loss. Have fun in Vegas.

successgal1

rileysowner wrote: »

A little over a pound a week is not bad progress. Unless a person is obese, I don't remember where you are in that if you mentioned it at all, 1 pound a week or even less would be a good rate of loss. Have fun in Vegas.

I know, I'm just a person who obsesses about the scale and found it easier to embrace then forget, lol. I started at 188 in Nov of 2015, paused in March of 2016 with 20 lbs lost. Couldn't sustain it and regained 7 or 8 lbs. Started again Nov 2 of 2016, just over 17 lbs lost since then. I know its not bad progress, mentally, lol. But that darn MFP stupid fake end of day calculation ticks me off!